Thursday, March 29, 2018

Good Friday, 1865

I'm sure I'd heard this somewhere before, but it was as I was reading Chernow's Grant biography during the last couple weeks that the fact struck me that President Lincoln was assassinated on Good Friday, 1865. The president was out at Ford's Theater watching a comedy, Our American Cousin.

I often think of the past as having been more religious, and less inclined towards everything being open all the time despite holidays or holy days. Thus, it seemed odd at first that Washington DC's high society was all out watching a farce on the evening of Good Friday. But then, of course, the it's not necessarily the case that the past was more religious than the present, and also celebration of Good Friday as a solemn day is fairly uneven among different Protestant denominations and at different times.

Regardless, God rest the soul of one of our greatest American presidents.

Contributors

Reading

With the Catholic News sites discussing the Vatican's move to reform the LCWR, I pulled this slim volume written back in 1986 off the shelf to re-read. It's a quick and amusing read: a satirical view of the breakdown and renewal of reli...

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This was one of those novels I ...

If you, like me, have been reared on tales of the second World War as the just and virtuous struggle of the "greatest generation", Evelyn Waugh's arch novels (based loosely on his own war experiences) are an important and darkly enjoyabl...

This was the first time in some years that I've re-read this Austen novel, one of the quieter and shorter ones, but one which has ranked among my favorites. It was striking me, on this pass, that it rather shows the effects of having be...